Kinglobjaw's Blog

Posts Tagged ‘routes’

At approximately 7:50PM local Philadelphia time, a US Airways Boeing 757 should begin boarding. The flight? A nonstop service to Oslo, Norway. US Airways press release here.
As with all the other US Airways transatlanic B757 services, there are 12 Envoy seats upfront and 164 in the back. Duration of the flight is approximately 8:00 hours and Great Circle Mapper tells us all it’s 3776 miles.

Philly to Oslo, Norway- 3776 miles, 8 hours in-flight on a US Airways B757

This is the third of four new transatlantic services US Airways launched since April:

• Charlotte, NC to Paris commenced April 21, 2009
• Philadelphia to Birmingham, UK commenced May 12, 2009
• Philadelphia to Oslo, Norway begins this evening

That leaves us Philadelphia to Tel Aviv which commences on July 2, 2009.

One last interesting tidbit. The flight (US788)  from Philly to Oslo is the continuation of the inbound flight from Ft. Lauderdale. That segment is operated with a B734.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

While certain members on Airliners.net reported seeing United flights scheduled between Pittsbugh-Los Angeles and Pittsburgh- San Fransisco, I’ve been silently, yet decidedly calling it BS! Maybe I was scared? I thought, surely this will mean one thing- US Airways will drop both routes it so desperately promised to retain.

Turns out it might be true. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran the article today. Looking at USAirways.com (both the old and Beta sites) I don’t see any flights on August 18, 2009, but I do see some in Sepetember and December of 2009. Maybe they haven’t zero’ed them out yet!

Anyway, if US Airways goes through with the pull out, it will only mean one thing- now more non hub/focus city routes out of Pittsburgh on mainline. The only non hub/focus city flying from Pittsburgh will be done by US Airways Express partner Trans States Airlines to Hartford/Springfield, Raleigh/Durham and St. Louis. I’m willing to bet those three cities will be soon cut as well. The nonstop to Las Vegas is also questionable, as Las Vegas’s status as a hub as US Airways is heading in Pittsburgh’s direction- more flight cuts. Then again one of the FA’s on my KOA flight last week did say FA’s were told some LAS flying would be added back.

I’m flying to Los Angeles in July, so I’m thinking of creating a routing to somehow make it on the Pittsburgh to Los Angeles flight. This would be to honor the last direct Pittsburgh service.

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark

If you’ve ever red any of my posts on aviation related forums like Airliners.net, USAviation.com or FlyerTalk.com, you’ll recall that I’ve been touting Warsaw as a necessary route for US Airways out of Philadelphia.

Sure, it is related to the fact that I’m Polish and I want to see my country suceed with new international air routes, but I also see it as a sound business decision for the Star Alliance member carrier.

I know for a fact that US Airways is interested in starting nonstop service to Moscow, Russia (DME specifically), and I’m sure the route will do well, but WAW is an established Eastern European Star Alliance hub. LOT offers daily service to major Eastern European cities- an area which is a “gap” within the alliance. Since the B757 doesn’t have the range to fly this route at full capacity, a 767 would be sufficient.

Other routes I’d like to see:

• Salt Lake City (SLC) served from an East Coast hub
• Washington Reagan (DCA) perimeter exemptions for US to fly DCA-LAX/SFO/SAN
• Tokyo, Japan (NRT)
• Viennia, Austria (VIE)
• Naples, Florida
• POS, Port Of Spain, Trinind & Tobago from CLT
• PHX- San Juan, Puerto Rico
• CLT-PVR (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico)

Some are wishful thinking, I know. I’m actually riding a train as I type this, so I am sort of bored, bur I wanted to sharing some raw and just put it out there. Comments appreciated. If you have a route you deem interesting, yet still realistic, share that as well!

Have a nice clicK life,

-Mark